Mix salt with flour and place in warm bowl, place in low oven few minutes to completely warm flour mix, add yeast and stir in. Warm milk, butter and sugar, stir to dissolve. Whisk egg into liquid make sure it's not hot only warm, then pour onto flour mix. Mix well until the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl cleanly, now add fruit and walnuts if wanted. Turn out onto board and knead 5 minutes, until fruit are evenly distributed through dough. Return to bowl, cover with Saran/cling film and leave in warm place to double.

I was directed to this board from a Chicago-area board I post on (strangely enough as I live in Sweden...). I thought that I'd post some (well, quite a few actually) pictures from my recent stollen batch. Hope I'm not breaking any board protocols with all of the pics, though...

I'm deliberately shying away from posting exact measurements here even if I don't dare make this without following the very-precise recipe (which I won't post as I'm sure this site doesn't need problems with copywrites!). I apologize if this lack of detail makes for some strange directions. I also recommend a very powerful mixer for this dough.

The ingredients:

Salt, butter (room temperature), almonds (bitter and sweet), whole milk (this is actually non-homogenized milk with fat content somewhere between 3.8% and 4.5%), yeast (this is fresh cake yeast that is especially adapted to high sugar-content doughs), an egg (yolk), high-protein flour, almond paste (some make their own by mixing equal amounts of peeled almonds and sugar), sugar, ingredients for a spice mixture and a mixture of dried fruit, nuts and rum.

Start by making a pre-dough with the yeast, half of the flour, a pinch of sugar and the milk.

Add the dry to the wet:

Incorporate:

And mix at low speed for 10 minutes. The dough will be elastic:

Let the pre-dough rest and rise for 30 to 60 minutes or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, make the spice paste.

Start by blanching and peeling the bitter (left) and sweet (right) almonds:

Add the almonds along with a chopped vanilla bean, some ground cardamon, nutmeg, sugar and lemon zest together to a processor...:

... and mix until it forms a smooth paste:

Dump the paste as well as the rest of the flour, some sugar, salt and an egg yolk onto the pre-dough:

Mix. This is where the mixing gets tough! Mix for a few minutes or until the pre-dough has finally incorporated the new ingredients.Gradually add knobs of the room-temperature butter. You'll notice the dough soften and smooth:

Knead, on low for 15 minutes or until the dough is very elastic:

Add the macerated fruits and nuts and mix briefly (too much mixing will break down the softened fruit):

Let the dough relax and rise for 60 minutes.

Divide the dough into equal pieces (I made four smallish loaves today but have also made two large ones with this recipe). Divide the almond paste into equal pieces and form into cylinders:

Roll out the dough, flatten slightly in the center and lay in one piece of almond paste. Wrap the dough over the almond paste, seal and form into a loaf.

Repeat.

Place the loaves on a parchment-covered baking pan and let rise until nearly doubled in size:

Bake for about 40 minutes in an initially hot oven. Throw a 1/2 cup of water or so onto the over floor immediately before closing the door to create steam. Reduce the heat after 5 minutes for the remaining 35 minutes.

Remove the loaves from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Brush the still-warm loaves with butter and sprinkle with sugar:

Allow to cool completely. Before serving, process one more vanilla bean with powdered sugar and cornstarch...:

... to make vanilla sugar. Dust (heavily) the loaf with the vanilla sugar, slice and enjoy!

This is beautiful. I'm making some stollen today for a party my wife is having. I don't know about posting protocol, but I love all the pictures, step by step process, and inexact recipe. In the U.S. it's almost impossible to buy non-homogenized milk or milk in that butterfat range. I think I'm going to ditch my recipes and just try to make it your way.

Trader Joe's sells an organic cream top pasterized milk, but not homogenized. They also sell an organic heavy cream also. I don't know the butterfat range though. I don't know if you have them around you, but they seem to have stores in most states. You might want to try finding some local farmers for milk, they may not be able to sell it to you since it is raw, but maybe be able to take donations or barter for something, like a loaf of bread.

It's an Electrolux mixer - called an Assistant in Swedish and (I believe) DLX in the States. It's tough as nails and simply won't burn up. Incorporating the flour, etc. into the pre-dough (before adding the butter) really gave it a run for the money, though.

I do feel for you if you'll be kneading by hand. 15 minutes in the Electrolux equals a good workout by hand!

Don't get hung up on the milk, either. 3% (that's "whole" in the States, right) should work just fine.

I've made the dough. Kneading by hand was no problem. It's rising beautifully, I couldn't find almond paste around here, so I had to make my own. Very easy and I kind of like it better, A little chunky, but so what. I've been baking like crazy all day. The semolina, currant and fennel bread just came out of the oven, I have a tourtiere in there now. It's a French-Canadian pork pie traditionnally served around here in the holiday season. I live in Maine, a very French-Canadian state. I'm ready to form the stollens. I'm making 8, some for a party and some to give away. A Jewish sourdough rye and some sem- whole wheat baguettes are rising. One benefit from the candied fruit. I had to buy a bottle of rum, So a couple of mojitos for me and my wife. No Cuban rum in the states though. For that matter currants are illegal in Maine and some other New England states. It's got to do with white pine blight. We have to get Zante Currants which are actually a type of grape. do with what you've got. No Trader Joes either. Lots of snow. Isn't Sweden north of here. Your kitchen looks very bright. It's getting dark here now around 4:00.

Working in hotels at this time of year provides a certain amount of humour

when it comes to Stollen.

The German chefs argue amongst themselves as to whose Grandmother had the best recipe. The Austrians and Germans, each think their Stollen is better; the French turn their nose up at anything that is not made by them; the Swiss silently smile because in their mind, only the Swiss make a Stollen worth eating and the Italians wonder why we even bother when we could be making Pannetone.

I’ve never seen Stollen made without at least a short sponge process

The sponge I make is with warmed milk, flour and yeast but a German lady I once worked with made a tremendous Stollen ( her Grandmothers recipe, naturally) and her sponge contained milk, butter, yeast, eggs, flour and sugar.

There’s a pretty good book out there called

Baking, the Art and Science, written by Schumemann and Treu and translated into English by Mr. Volker Baumann.

This book will probably answer any question you have with regards to rye breads.

There’s a page or two on Stollen with a Basic Recipe shown here with weights that allow for an easy percentage comparison.

I’ve seen pine nuts and dried cranberries in some recipes; total fruit in this book is 140% of flour weight!

In other words, the fruit in this recipe totals 1400 gms, not including the rum (80gm)

Recipes range from 70% upwards.

This should give you 6 units at almost 600 gm each

I would scale the marzipan log at 85 gm each.

Here are some notes on production of Stollen from this book:

- Let the dried fruits soak in rum overnight

- Final dough temperature 24 c if making an all butter Stollen

( 24 x 1.8 + 32 = 75f)

- Prepare a soft sponge

- Mix dough first, without the addition of fruit

- Let dough rest 30 minutes before adding fruit

- While Stollen is still warm, brush with melted butter or margarine.

- Immediately after, sprinkle fine-grained sugar over the Stollen.

- After it’s cooled, sprinkle with icing sugar.

The German lady allowed the Stollen to cool without a butter wash, and the next day, literally submerged the log in a tub of simple syrup. Others,stollen sponge I’ve seen brush with hot rum simple syrup as it comes out of the oven.

“- Stollen is best stored in a very cool, dark room.

- Stollen can be stored in a deep freezer without losing its quality characteristics.

(I froze one for a year, wrapped in plastic wrap and kept in a cardboard box; the next season it was fine)

- Heavy Stollen attains its full enjoyment value only two days after production. It will keep their quality characteristics for at least four weeks.”

I just completed 9 good sized stollens using a family recipe I have followed for the last 26 years.We do not like the almond paste roll in the middle but do use lots of slivered blanced almonds 16 oz, glaced cherries 8 oz, slivered citron 4 oz,currants 10 oz, yellow raisins 15 oz, ground cardamon1.5 t, (a most) ,a little cinn.5 t, 2 grated lemom peel and 1 t.salt. Most of the other procedures and ingredients are the same. I use a total of about 5 lbs of flour,7 eggs, 1 q of milk, 1C sugar ,1 lb of butter and 5 pkg of rapid rise yeastWe never use rum either. The stollen is so delicious and all 15 in our family look forward to it as the favorite tradtion though we bake tons of cookies as well.

By the way I buy my cardamon in the health food store that sells small amout of spices Not only is it cheaper but it is fresh every year. I live in Northport, NY.

Bridgestone when I saw your photos of the Stollen and those of your mixer I thought 'I want one' lol and wouldyou believe I can't buy one in the UK!

I wrote to a big store in Sweden who said they don't do export. I even wrote to the Swedish Embassy! I wrote to the Electrolux HeadOffice in Sweden who informed me that they did not intend to sell the mixer in the UK. I'm sure there must be a Swedish store which exports. If you know of one will you let me know.Please.

I can buy in the USA but of course the power voltage is different to the UK. I am feeling really miffed. lol

Such a coincidence as I made stollen for the first time this week. I used a recipe almost identical to qahtan's, a Delia Smith recipe. Only I used water instead of milkand oil instead of butter, as I wanted to keep it parve.

12 oz of flour made two good sized stollens, and I grated the marzipan and scattered it on the dough.Mixed and kneaded by hand, no problems as relatively small quantities.

We think it was the most delicious yeast cake I've ever made, especially warm from the oven.

I'm in the process of mass producing stollen as well. I finish our stollen by brushing them liberally with melted butter immediately after I take them out of the oven, followed by rolling in granulated sugar as a finishing touch compared to a more traditional heavy dusting of confectioners sugar. We give them out as gifts. However, because of massive time crunch due to my job and family obligations, I've managed to split the dough making/baking/finishing touches over several days. This is because I only have the evenings free for baking. Here's what I do:

Day 1 (evening): While I'm eating dinner, I let the dried fruit soak in dark rum. I use a combination of raisins, dried cherries, dried cranberries, and chopped dried apricots. The original recipe asked for candied fruit (which I dislike...too fruitcake like). After dinner, I make the stollen dough. But instead of letting it rise for the 1-1/2 to 2 hours, I stick the dough into an oiled bowl, wrap in plastic and then put it in the fridge.

The very next evening: Just before dinner, I take out the dough (it is pretty hard and stiff while cold) and divide it into the number of stollen that I will form (typically 3 medium sized ones or 4 small ones). I cover each piece with plastic and let it sit in a warm spot to soften, resume rising for about 2 hours. Sometime after dinner, I'll form the stollen and let it rise again for another hour before baking (which typically takes about 30 min). After baking, I leave the stollen out overnight on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Next morning: Before I leave for work, I tightly wrap each stollen in aluminum foil, put them in ziplock freezer bags and stick them in the freezer. Where they can keep for a good long time.

When I need to finish the stollen: I take out the stollen in the morning before I go to work to let them thaw out slowly and thoroughly. When I get home from work, I stick them briefly in the oven to get them warm (350 F for 10-15 min). I as I take them out of the oven, I slather them all over with lots of unsalted melted butter, followed by rolling them in granulated sugar. I then let them cool on a rack. When they are cooled, I wrap them in red colored Saran Wrap and then use a red colored transparent wrapping paper to finish wrapping the stollen. The ends of the wrapping paper are bunched up on top by a ribbon.

Last year, I ended up giving out 15 stollen as gifts (mostly because my wife kept adding people to our gift list). So, I managed to start early and store many of them in the freezer until I needed them.

If you make the stollen the right way (start to finish in one baking session), it probably would turn out the best, but the way that I do this now is much more manageable for me and my schedule.

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